


A Series of Stupid Events

by Leernearqueerfear



Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M, No fucking clue what boruto is, Nothing to do w/ a series of unfortunate events, Still gonna be way too long and unsexy but if you’re into that I’m here for u, tbh if I was talented enough to do a fucking crossover for that I would, that was just the first thing that came to mind for the title
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-04
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-11-09 00:00:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 10,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17991020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leernearqueerfear/pseuds/Leernearqueerfear
Summary: Two idiots overthinking because neither of them come from a background of any healthy relationships so they think all relationships are inherently unhealthy. Miscellaneous stupid events ensue as a result.





	1. Chapter 1

Naruto couldn’t imagine feeling lower than he did today. After all of the hardships in his life, this was the one that cut the deepest.

‘I’m just not meant to have the things that make me happy’, he thought as he waved over at the man he loved. The man he loved sitting with the woman that _he_ loved, his two teammates nonetheless; Sasuke and Sakura.

Sasuke waved back and excused himself from his little date with Sakura, she looked and waved at Naruto too but he couldn’t bring himself to return the gesture once more, it was already too hard the first time. As a result, Sasuke gave him a face as he walked over.

“What are you shunning Sakura for?” He asked as he approached. Naruto felt there was no reason he should burden the guy with the truth of his discoveries; as much as it hurt him he had to bear this alone.

With that in mind, he decided an answer was not necessary and began walking towards their next patrol meeting without waiting for Sasuke to reach him. “Jesus wait up,” Sasuke complained as he doubled his pace to catch up, “What’s up with you _today,_ usuratonkachi?”

“Nothing is up with me.” He hoped to put an end to the conversation with that, firmly put. Sasuke eyed him concerned before reluctantly conceding with an “ok” and taking his hand. Naruto retracted his hand faster than any reflexes he’d ever performed before, “I just don’t feel like doing that today, ok?” he defended to Sasuke’s surprised face.

Sasuke took a few steps back and cleared his throat awkwardly, “yeah, ok.” Naruto would’ve felt bad for his behavior, but he had realized something in their relationship and he knew that he had to do what he had to do to help Sasuke in the long-run. After all, it had been Naruto who had brought Sasuke back to the village and at first it seemed as though Naruto was the only one in the world who didn’t want to see him executed.

When he came back, Naruto had become a lifeline, he was _literally_ the only lifeline that he had. But things were changing now, the way things always change, and people have learned to forgive Sasuke. And as soon as people forgive Sasuke they fall in love with him again; he knew that better than anyone.

When Sasuke left the village Naruto always chased him, he trained himself to find whatever he could to get closer to him, just to get closer to him. But Sasuke hadn’t been looking behind him that whole time, he didn’t see Naruto, he never did, really. It wasn’t fair to Sasuke from the start for Naruto to be so in love with him already, before the outlaw even got the chance to meet him again.

If Sasuke only fell in love with _him_ as that lifeline, it’s natural that he would eventually outgrow the one who just makes him think of his struggles and hardships.

Trying to hold Sasuke back from the people he really desired would be taking advantage of the vulnerability Sasuke had under Naruto, and that wasn’t what he wanted.

He pondered this as he walked through the doors to the building; doors which he didn’t think to hold for Sasuke, who was smacked with them for taking Naruto’s politeness for granted. Naruto looked back and winced, “Sorry man, lost in thought.” With that he continued on to the meeting.

—

After it was over, they had their assignment, which today seemed to only be that of the info-seeking variety. They took off that day to the village, just recently attacked by some creeps working for this new knockoff akatsuki organization; he couldn’t help but sigh in an elder-like annoyance every time people brought it up.

 _Back in my day_ , they were high-class, exceptional, _unique_ shinobi, now any old group of baddies think they can huddle together and match it, it’s insulting. _Anyway,_ they arrived at the village with time to spare before the sun went down, and decided now was as good a time as any to grab something to eat. Besides, whatever information they could get off the people here was bound to be buzzing around in places where alcohol is served.

The two were always put on their missions together because, frankly, none of their employers trusted Sasuke as far as they could throw him, and they couldn’t throw him very far either. In fact it was only because they realized how far Sasuke outranked them in terms of strength that they agreed to let him work for them in the first place.

Naruto had spun it masterfully for them to see that Sasuke made a better ally than an enemy, so when they required that Naruto always accompany him “in case of incident” he felt like he got _exactly_ what he wanted. It was a good feeling.....

Would that count as manipulating his position to spend more time with Sasuke?? Was it harassment??? Ugh I have _noooo idea!!_

“Naruto?” Sasuke broke him from his daze, “What do you want, Naruto?” He asked, disappointment at Naruto’s lack of manners evident on his face.

“Saké”

“A little early for saké.”

Naruto glared at his partner, “My money doesn’t know what time it is. I’ll sit here _all day_ drinking it!”

“I’ll be back with your food” the server quickly excused himself before having to bear witness to some couple squabble. Sasuke looked back after him with a raised eyebrow, “Doubt we’ll get anything from that guy now.”

“Don’t worry, when they switch shifts and a woman comes out she’ll spill everything,” Naruto grumbled, “like always.”

Now Sasuke raised an eyebrow at him, “If something’s bothering you, don’t hold back on my account. We’re probably not gonna see any real players until later, we can talk.”

“Cool.” He didn’t want to talk. He reclined in his seat and closed his eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

Sasuke felt like he missed some traumatic event that took place with Naruto that caused him to regress back into a child right the hell out of nowhere.

It had been almost six years since he had finally come home to the leaf village, almost two years since he and Naruto started their assignments that allowed them to spend _all_ their time together, and almost a year since they decided they were _always_ going to spend all their time together. And also started boning on the regular.

 _Anyway,_ Sasuke felt he knew Naruto as best as a person could possibly know another; he was tuned into every single one of his quirks, he knew when he was feeling brave and when he was feeling weak, when he needed to be showered in attention and when he needed space. He knew _everything_ about Naruto. But he had never seen him act as coldly as these past few months.

At first Sasuke thought he was imagining it, but as time went on the signs got undeniable, it was just like Sasuke was some annoying fly that Naruto couldn’t help but swat at and push away. After a while he began seeking the counsel of Sakura, the queen of complicated relationships; being involved in two separate on-again-off-again ones with Ino and Lee herself.

The way that she described it, Lee was the easy backslide. When she was working her ass off as the top medical ninja of the village (still active in duty for missions too I might add, she does not play), and she would come home to an empty house and just think; “there should be another body in here”, that was when Lee got a call.

When she started talking about Ino the tone always became much less light; in her eyes Ino was the one that she felt, in her own drunken words, ‘my fucking soul called out to ever since I was a fucking kid’. Their problem was just remembering how much they loved each other after every heated argument they got into. Both girls were highly opinionated and they did not grow out of their love for arguing, it was like art watching the two of them go at it sometimes. They always wound up calling the whole thing off, for, at most, a few months, before they became overcome with emotion and forgave each other again.

Sakura had once confided to him with wine-drunk peace and reflection, that even when they were kids and she thought she was in love with Sasuke, there was always a part of her that saw that “you’s and Naruto’s souls would be calling out to each other _everyday!_ ”. She claimed she was not the least bit surprised when she found out that they were dating, though Sasuke wasn’t sure to this day whether or not that was the truth.

On the first day that Sasuke decided to confide in her about his concerns with Naruto, her feedback was the thing that made him the most concerned. He had just finished telling her all the things that he had picked up on as changes in Naruto’s behavior towards him. She sat back in silence for a few moments, turning over all the information in her head, before saying, “It sounds like he’s treating you the way you treated me when we were kids.”

Sasuke gasped without thinking, “You don’t really think that, do you?”

Sakura was taken aback and her face softened, “Oh Sasuke, it’s alright, I’ve forgiven you for the way that you were, you’re a completely different person now!”

“No! I mean I used to really hate you when we were kids! You think Naruto _hates_ me!?”

“ ** _EXCUSE_ ME!?**”-

Sasuke shivered at the memory, he had not learned much from her that day on how to deal with his relationship problems but he learned an equally valuable lesson about the consequences for saying certain things.

He thanked the man as he set down his food and Naruto’s saké, then turned back to look at Naruto. Seemingly unaware of any kind of movement beyond the inside of his eyelids, Naruto sat there looking fed up with everything. He was just as bad today as he’s been for a while now, Sasuke kept hoping the next mission would come along and Naruto would forget whatever it was that was weighing on him and go back to normal. He kept being disappointed on this front time and time again, he just couldn’t understand for the life of him, why?

Today, Sasuke told Sakura that they had a mission and she decided to roll the idea by him that maybe the reason why Naruto was so irritable is that he feels he’ll never be able to grow to his potential because he has to watch Sasuke for seemingly the rest of his life. _Juuuust_ casually put that out there. When Sasuke had given her a look like “are you serious? why are you doing this to me?”, she merely threw her hands up, “Just a theory!”

He hadn’t even gotten the chance to respond to that one when he saw Naruto and took off, it becoming evident as soon as he saw him that today was gonna be another difficult day. So was it really for the reason that Sakura gave? He couldn’t imagine Naruto thinking that way, but he also couldn’t imagine Naruto acting the way he has been lately. It could be a possibility.

He eyed his face as he roused from his ‘slumber’ and made a comment about how nobody told him his saké was there already. ‘Do I hold you back, Naruto?’


	3. Chapter 3

The next few days dragged on slowly for both of them; talk up some people in a dark setting when everybody’s feeling loose and friendly, get the info, send word back to Konoha, rinse and repeat. Naruto found this part of the job particularly unrewarding as he would always have to just accept that everybody, in every region, on the earth, was magnetically attracted to his boyfriend.

The common folk in these villages wouldn’t know anything about either of their history, and they never let out any information that could attract attention. But when they had a weapon like Sasuke’s face, there was no way they were handicapping themselves with a mask. Naruto could be working on getting something out of people for forever, then suddenly in walks Sasuke and it’s all ‘who’s your friend? I’ll talk to him, I got plenty I can say to him’, like sure, it was degrading for everyone involved, but fuck if they didn’t know everything they needed to know within _days_ of entering a new location.

In most towns, it would take a couple days before they hit the jackpot with a random civilian informant. Here, they found her on day four; a short, sweet looking woman named Mei. She hadn’t been in the usual locations they hit and really the only reason they found her was that she had heard her neighbors talking about ninjas from Konoha being in town and she tracked _them_ down. 

Needless to say, they were both a little surprised when they opened the door to a sweaty, gasping lady, immediately unloading on them everything she knew before giving them the chance to utter a word. And everything means _everything_ ; she started so far back that at first the Shinobi thought she might have been a confused woman rambling to them as strangers.

Apparently, she had a younger sister who had been gifted ever since she was a child with above average strength and capabilities, strengths she honed at the ninja academy, graduating top of her class in all physical fields.

The sister’s name was Mio, and she was making what you could call a name for herself (even if there it would be an alias) back in Konoha where she worked in Anbu. Apparently she possessed the highest success rate out of any of her peers and there was talk going around she had a good chance of getting promoted.

This was when Mei got sick and weak, she struggled to support herself, and without another thought Mio left her position and moved in to support her. “You know, she was just always so selfless!” She emphasized to Sasuke’s cool, steady face.

They uncovered after some time listening to her sentimental stories, that the akatsuki-wannabes had come to the village to recruit Mio. They were willing to do whatever it took to make her follow them, including hurting Mei. She revealed that part as she turned around and lifted her shirt to unveil a big, nasty scar running down the length of her back, “got me as I was running, the bastard.” Sasuke and Naruto started looking at Mei different after this; she would’ve made a good ninja herself, she knows all about the power to endure.

At the end of the day, Mio decided she would rather join them than let her sister get seriously hurt or even killed on her behalf. Mei explained Mio’s decision by telling the two about their parents being kidnapped and presumed dead some years before this. This was what left the sisters co-dependent, they knew the value of protecting the people important to them because they had already felt loss so many times.

What the dumbasses at fake-katsuki didn’t realize, was that Mio had picked up the ability to record and deliver information discreetly when she was in Anbu; she was sending information back to her sister all the time. Mei just didn’t have the power to do anything about it until now.

The last piece of information that Mei got from her was the time and location of their next meet, and although there was no exact address, they knew it was only a few villages away. Moreover, it was taking place the very next night, the boys would have to quickly send back word to Konoha and leave right away if they wanted to make it on time.

Mei insisted on being brought, and while neither of them liked the idea, they eventually conceded that she knew more details about the group they were after as well as the layout of her neighboring village. They took off that night.

The next day Sasuke and Naruto stayed in and got their gear ready for the oncoming battle as Mei stood as “lookout”; it was the middle of the day still so they didn’t feel too uncomfortable letting Mei feel useful watching outside the door.

Sasuke pulled back the shade on one of their windows and examined her out there, she was, bless her heart, posted up against a pole with her arms crossed and scanning every inch of her surroundings, left and right, back and forth, aggressively. He couldn’t imagine what the locals were making of their group.

He sighed as he turned away from the window and walked back to what he was doing, “You know? I’m glad we brought her. Something tells me she’s an avenger too.”

Naruto tried to hold back his laughter, “You shut up! I _love_ her!”

“Well you would, that’s your type.”

Naruto smacked him, “You can’t be Mei, I already see myself as a Mio, it’ll ruin you for me forever if I see you as my sister.”

“Oof! drop your duties to come take care of me baby.”

Naruto couldn’t suppress the laugh anymore, “I hate you!”

“No you don’t,” Sasuke smiled as he pulled Naruto in for a warm kiss to disrupt his laughter, what was Mei going to think of them joking around in here with her outside pulling all the weight?

Naruto was still smiling with his eyes closed when Sasuke pulled away and looked at him.

“Nope. I don’t.” Naruto trailed off when he said this, and Sasuke felt his chest constrict. ‘He’s gonna get weird again’

Naruto straightened out and backed away, “We should finish up here, then we can talk strategy going in, sound good?” But he was already turned around before he gave Sasuke a chance to respond.

“sounds good.” Sasuke mumbled.


	4. Chapter 4

 

Naruto could feel the discomfort in the room becoming glaringly obvious after Sasuke and himself finished going over their plan of attack and they found themselves sitting and watching paint dry. They would be infiltrating the base tonight at the meeting, all the heads were going to be in one place anyway, might as well recognize it for the fish-in-barrel situation that it was.

Of course, neither of them wanted to hurt Mio, and Mei had given them a picture to memorize of her face to avoid accidentally doing something they would regret. If possible, they wanted to complete this mission with more hostages than casualties; there was no need to use an excessive amount of force when they couldn’t be sure how many of the people were in Mio’s situation. The thought of this was already adding an air of tension to the room, but it was only thickened with the awkward silence they found themselves in when they stopped talking about it.

Naruto definitely wasn’t used to these uncomfortable silences despite how often they seemed to happen lately. Before, it had felt, even in silence, like the two of them breathed as one unit, now they just felt like two people breathing in the same room. He wondered if ripping off the band-aid now would make these silences less endless; if it was over he wouldn’t have to worry so much about the ways he was leashing the person he cared so much about.

_If I love him I have to let him go._

“Sasuke,” he started out of the blue, making the other jump slightly, but listen anyway, “can we talk?”

Sasuke nodded but he looked as if he wasn’t sure whether this was going to be something he regretted agreeing to. Which was fair as Naruto felt he probably wouldn’t immediately understand the purpose of what Naruto was going to do for him. But with some time he would get it, he’d be grateful.

“What is it?” Sasuke asked, clearly anxious to get the conversation started. It occurred to Naruto for the first time that maybe he should wait until after they completed their mission to do this, but he wanted to get it out of the way so they wouldn’t be going in with the current tension. There was plenty of time to discuss and process so that they could both perform without any lingering questions.

“I know that you’ve sensed by now that I’ve been pulling back a little bit.” Naruto started, Sasuke reflexively scoffed over the ‘little bit’ part, but cleared his throat and sat up when Naruto gave him a look for it. He figured talking about it was a good sign and he felt relief that his boy was finally feeling comfortable enough to open up to him about the thing bothering him, whatever it was.

“Yeah I think I’ve been able to somewhat pick up on that.” He replied with an expectant face. This apology was about to be everything he needed, the other guy already looking like his shame was eating at him. Pfff, he was always so serious about things like this, Sasuke personally felt the make-up sex was more than enough apology, but he wasn’t going to disrespect Naruto’s process of getting to that. Besides, he loved how soft and emotional Naruto could be, it was what made him feel secure he would always be there for him.

“I don’t think we should see each other anymore.”

Sasuke’s face immediately went slack,

“ _...hu..?_ ”

Naruto’s jaw shifted uncomfortably, “I just wanted to come right out and say it. I know that y-“ Sasuke stopped hearing him, his ears were buzzing, he felt like he should be laughing, this felt like some impossible event.

“-but I know that eventually you’ll see th-, **_Sasuke!_** Are you _crying?!?_ ” Naruto cut himself off in surprise.

Sasuke was about to respond when the door slammed open; Mei.

“I saw them!! It’s happening _now_! I saw **them**! I _know_ it was them!!” She came in rattling off these phrases like crazy as she rushed over to the two indisposed Shinobi.

Sasuke’s head snapped towards her with all the confusion and depression he carried from his last conversation, but he quickly channeled everything into focusing on her words. He stood and grabbed her by her arms, “Calm down Mei, we’re here, look at me, you’re ok.”

“Why are your eyes all red?” Mei inquired in a panicked surrender to the motherly instincts that took up so much of her personality.

“Mei focus, what did you see?”

She shook her head violently, “Right! I’m sorry, I saw the group that took Mio! I have no doubt! They were wearing the exact cloaks that she described to me in her letters! They weren’t even being _discreet!_ Walking around in broad daylight without a care for who sees them! I’d love to go back myself and teach them a lesson! Think they can-“

“Mei, you are **_not_** going after them.” Sasuke tried to put it in a tone she might listen to, he knew how emotions could lead someone off the handle when going into a fight. Mei wasn’t exactly a high-class shinobi; she would barrel in there and get taken down in two seconds, and that was no good for anyone. Although she did immediately give Sasuke a look so fierce he might’ve considered letting her go against his best judgement.

He stroked her arm empathetically and gave her a reassuring face, “You’re telling _me_ where they went so _I_ can go after them.”

She smiled wide and opened her mouth to begin.

Naruto stood and threw his arms up at this point, “Wait a _second_ you guys! We might know where they are but that doesn’t mean we need to go in right this moment!”

Sasuke and Mei eyed him as a traitor, but he continued his case, “We still know the meet is not supposed to take place ‘till later; we have time! Besides, I really don’t think we should rush in there without clear heads and,” he cleared his throat, “Mei, I’m sorry but, we really need to finish the discussion we were having before you came in.”

She looked heart-broken, “How could any conversation be more important than the life of my own sister?”

“How could any conversation be more important than the life of her own sister, _Naruto!?_ ” Sasuke reaffirmed.

“You understand the situation as well as I do right now! Don’t play dumb, dumbass!”

“I _understand_ that I’m going where Mei points me and rescuing Mio. With everything I have. That’s what I understand. If _you_ don’t understand that, you’re free to sit here by yourself, your help is optional!”

“Oh, _optional!_ That’s cute!”

But Sasuke had already grabbed Mei’s hand and she led him out with a profoundly disappointed stare towards Naruto.

“Mei! Wait, you don’t understand, Mei, _Mei!_ _Sasuke!!!_ ” Naruto had been left in the dust and he silently cursed himself as he followed them out the door.


	5. Chapter 5

This is stupid, this is stupid, this is stupid. You just _had_ to clear the air before the mission, didn’t you, idiot? But in fairness to himself, Naruto was reminded he had thought they’d have more time; but then again, in fairness, he also should’ve known that the universe is out to get him.

Now they were running deep down an underground staircase and Naruto was starting to wonder if they were idiots for doing this by themselves in the first place. He didn’t like this place and it felt a lot more legit than what he had been picturing, and, not that he would’ve wanted her down here, but it did feel even creepier without the living comfort blanket, Mei. They reached the bottom of the stairs and continued down a dark hallway.

“Sasuke, are you really not going to talk to me?” He asked Sasuke’s cold back, he had been watching it since they left their lodgings, Sasuke seemingly trying to lose him for a while now with the speed he went at. He seemed not to have heard the question, but Naruto was not the type to let people ignore him.

“ _Sasukeeee_ ” he would’ve dragged out the _ehhhhh_ at the end forever if the man didn’t turn around and clamp his hand over his mouth. He drew his face in close to Naruto’s, “I am _not_ talking about it, I am _not_ getting into it on a mission, and you know what? _you_ are not talking at all. This is called infiltration, Naruto. It requires this thing you might’ve heard of called stealth.”

Naruto tried to say something but it came out in muffled tones, no words. Sasuke looked frustrated, “Look, I’m trying to focus on the mission right now, I don’t have time to be worrying about our status, there’s bigger fish!” Naruto continued struggling against him, “I’m _serious_ Naruto! You think I have the capacity to be thinking about what’s going on with us _and_ the mission, but the only thing I’m thinking about right now is not getting discovered by the enemy, can’t you just focus on the _enemy??_ ”

Naruto rolled his eyes and decided to resort to biting his hand, Sasuke pulled it back in frustration, but Naruto knew he had the real grievance with the other in this situation.

“Enemies like _them!?_ ” He yelled, annoyed, as he physically turned the other ninja around for him to notice the herd of people right behind him. He could physically hear Sasuke swallow his pride, alright then, plan two, no sneaking, all attacking; no problem. They stanced up while the villains came barreling towards them; a bunch of fucking idiots with, get this, black cloaks with red diamonds all over them.

Like what does the diamond symbolize?? Greed? ‘ _Get a grip, what is the story?_ ’ He thought as he and his superhuman boyfr- ex-boyfriend zipped through the line and incapacitated the people trying desperately to land a single hit with their big fancy weapons. Naruto felt his anxieties about Sasuke’s mental state inhibiting him lessen as they bounced off of each other like usual, wiping the group out.

“You know, actually, now that we’re talking anyway, fuck you!” Sasuke shouted as if they were back in the room as he ducked under an arm and jerked his elbow back under the owner’s chin, knocking him down.

Naruto was in the middle of a roundhouse kick directed at a few different people when he heard him, “Don’t be like that Sasuke, nothing’s gonna change! We’ll still be on assignments together, just not as a couple.”

Sasuke knocked someone out who was trying to come up behind Naruto in the confusion, “ _Yeah! Exactly!_ What the fuck is _that_ anyway?? You’re fine with seeing me you just hate my dick!?”

“I love your dick! _Really!_ ”

“You’ve got a funny way of showing it!”

“This has nothing to do with your dick!”

“Oh so it’s my personality, _well_ , never mind then, I feel better now.”

“Sasuke, can’t we try to be mature about this?”

“Hmm..” Sasuke made a point to tap his chin between attacks, “Yeah, I doubt it! Pretty sure you lost all rights to a mature breakup with _Sasuke! Are you crying!?_ Dick”

“I know this will shock you but you’re actually not a very openly emotional person!! I was _surprised!_ ”

“Oh _you_ were surprised! That must’ve been so awful for you.”

“I’ve seen your tears like five times the whole time I’ve known you!”

“Enough about my tears!!”

The number of enemies was dwindled down to nearly none at this point. “I’ll have you know I cry a perfectly normal amount!” Naruto made a small sound of disagreement that made Sasuke even more defensive.

” _My_ tears are no longer any of _your_ business; thanks anyway babe.” He finished kicking someone to the ground as he said this and found Naruto’s face right behind them. Everybody was down but Sasuke felt pain for the first time in the encounter, “thanks anyway _dobe_ , dobe” he stammered a correction.

He finally felt it in his chest; he would never feel the beating of Naruto’s heart thumping a tune on his back again. He would never feel Naruto again, for any reason, at any time. He wanted to go back and ring past-Sasuke’s neck from the second-hand embarrassment he was already feeling for himself at the events that led up to this.

Naruto had helped him in so many different ways that when he finally seemed to be fucking up, Sasuke had seen it like an opportunity to show he could handle a little crazy on Naruto’s side without pushing him away too. He had almost been sort of happy, in a bizarre way, that he had a chance to prove their partnership was equal by sticking through this. Now he realized he was just an idiot who was too clueless to pick up on the signs his boyfriend wasn’t in love with him anymore.

He was stuck for a second, he let it paralyze him for a second, but he shook his head, and went on. “Let’s go, this was just one patrol unit.” He referenced all the bodies on the floor, “And I don’t see a Mio, do you?” But he walked on without waiting for an answer.


	6. Chapter 6

When they reached a fork, Sasuke felt Naruto would understand what they were going to do without him having to explicitly say, but he was giving his...ex, he realized, too much credit. He turned around irked by Naruto’s presence, “ _Split up”_ he whispered aggressively at him.

Naruto looked offended, like he had any right to be right now, “Sasuke...” he paused, then continued whispering, “I just want to make sure you’ll be ok.”

Sasuke scowled, “Touching. But you’ll be more useful not clinging to my leg.”

Naruto was clearly hurt as he retracted into himself before turning around and being gone within a second. But then he _was_ gone. Sasuke let out a strong breath, he couldn’t let himself break down until after the mission, if for no other reason than just to make sure Mei and Mio were able to have the reunion that they deserved. With that in mind, he straightened, turned forwards, and took off, intent on fixing at least one relationship tonight.

He passed a few rooms in the endless hallways, each one he inspected, with weapon bared, to be met with emptiness. He felt a growing unease as he went further, why was nobody in the rooms? Why just the one patrol out front?

He also became aware of the place, in general, putting him on extra edge. After all, in those years where he was dead to the world, just a kid, he’d spent a lot of time in sketchy underground places like this. At that time, opening doors meant seeing something you couldn’t unsee. Facing this unknown phobia was not something Sasuke had thought he’d be doing today; but he didn’t think a lot of things would happen today, so what the fuck ever at this point, right?

Just as he’d had this thought, seemingly challenging fate to throw whatever it had at him, he heard a scream coming from the direction he was facing. Hearing a scream in general in a place like this was to be expected and Sasuke would’ve thought it was a lucky break from these dud rooms if he hadn’t immediately recognized the voice. Having recognized it, he found his legs move faster than he’d known they could.

He slammed into the door he located as the source of the scream and saw exactly what he was afraid he would.

“Jesus Naruto, after all that talk about _me_ not being prepared for the mission?? You really are the number one unpredictable ninja.” He mocked despite feeling helpless entering this new situation. Naruto was on the ground tied up with some kind of special wire, he could feel chakra coming from it right away, it must have been some technique of the enemy’s.

“Shut up it wa- _AHHH_ ” he began twisting and yelling in pain.

“Naruto!” Sasuke sprung towards him but he froze when Naruto shouted at him to stay away, “She’s. She’s still in here!” he got through convulsions. Sasuke felt stupid for letting his guard down and immediately activated his sharingan and searched for the unknown enemy, the space was too tight for him to activate any of his bests but he hoped he could take this one out without that.

Maybe she just caught Naruto off guard and managed to tie him up, he loved him to death but he knew he could be dumb as a pile of bricks; it didn’t necessarily mean Sasuke couldn’t outthink the enemy. “Come out!”

For a second nothing happened except for the quiet struggling of Naruto from the floor, and Sasuke felt his impatience grow the more he listened helplessly. Then he heard a laugh, “I gotta say, I’m a little underwhelmed fellas” they could hear her voice along with her strong footsteps from inside the shadows, “I mean really, I was,” her voice was getting closer and closer, “I was all worried about this, like every step of the way I was like ‘I’m underestimating them, they’re not that stupid, they’re the stuff of legends, there’s no way they’re really this weak.’” She broke out into a laugh, “even as shit was going right as I planned I was convinced you guys were just letting me think you were fooled, like-like-lik- like I thought you were playing tricks on tricks!!” This was hysterical to her.

“I guess this is why you never meet your heroes.” She shrugged as her face finally came into view.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.” Sasuke immediately said.

“RIGHT??” Naruto shouted from the ground, it appeared the wire had stopped doing whatever it was that was causing him pain and now he was just a sweaty, gasping observer of this shitshow.

“Mio!?” Sasuke shouted in disbelief.

“The one and only.” She smirked.

Sasuke tried to make sense of any of this, then a thought dawned on him with horror, “Mei was a spy!?”

At this comment, Mio doubled over in laughter, “You need to shut up, I swear! You keep saying shit this funny, I’m not gonna get out any of my evil plans without busting a gut!” She waved him down as she laughed, “No, idiot, you think I’d be able to get that one to agree to any of this!? Please!”

She finished laughing and wiped her eyes, “No _o_ , not sweet _Meeei_ , she’d never understand any of this.” she gestured vaguely around her and then shrugged, “You know, sometimes, we can’t tell the people that we love what we’re doing for them, just because of how much we love them.”

“And how exactly is any of this for Mei!?” Naruto shot back at her, maybe too confidently for somebody tied up on the ground, but hey, that was the man he loved, he didn’t know how not to be confident.

Mio groaned, “Don’t try to get me speaking all out of order!! That was gonna come out naturally during a monologue, _asshole._ ” she seemed to activate the wires for a second like a zap collar when the dog starts barking.

“So what, exactly, is the plan here, Mio?” Sasuke asked, at this point he really couldn’t make sense of anything that was happening, maybe it was best to just let the woman talk.

She smiled, “Ok so there’s a lot of factors that aren’t important, but the first step is killing you.” She said this pointing at Sasuke, then paused and restated, “or, well that could be the first step, or I can kill him” she pointed at Naruto now, then looked back to Sasuke with a smile, “and Konoha will hunt you like a dog and I don’t know what they’ll do to you.”

With that Sasuke felt there was no point in trying to say anything to her. But the woman clearly thought she had more power in the situation than she actually did, he rushed her with his sword drawn. She did a little “ohh?” As if a puppy was trying to jump onto her lap. At the same time, Naruto started screaming at the top of his lungs and Sasuke felt himself freeze.

“Ooh” Mio exclaimed, “ _gooood_ instincts!! See, I’ve seen people not understand the situation before with this jutsu,” she laughed as Sasuke’s eyes flicked helplessly between her and a squirming Naruto, “it’s so funny, because you just know the two brain cells in the guys’ head are just going crazy when they knock out or even kill the caster of the jutsu and see that just speeds the process on these wires.” She mimicked a look of fear, “like ‘oh shit what do I do now? That usually works’ you know???” She didn’t seem to notice or care that Sasuke was clearly not seeing the humor, she carried on like he was.

“Just what is your endgame? Why the hell are you after us?” Sasuke questioned venomously.

She rolled her eyes, “ _So_ unfair that you refer to the two of you as ‘us’, so gross, so annoying.”

Sasuke found himself praying this whole thing wasn’t some complex hate-crime, no way people were _that_ bad. She seemed to sense his thoughts and scoffed, “Not in that way.” She rolled her eyes and Sasuke saw that she stopped the torture as she wanted him to hear her speak, “Its unfair that you refer to the two of you as ‘us’ because you make the two of you equivalent to the world, newsflash baby; you’re not!”

Sasuke didn’t even have a guess as to what she was talking about, “Would you spit it out already? I know you’ve rehearsed this in your head a million times but I’ve got a million things I’d rather be doing.”

“Cocky little shit, aren’t we?” She laughed,“ _Okay!_ If you insist; I brought this.” she pulled a small container with some kind of dark liquid inside out of her pocket.

“Is that supposed to mean something to me?”

“Oh the good part is you don’t realize just how _much_ this means to you yet! You see, _this_ is what you’re going to drink to kill yourself!” She said excitedly. 

Sasuke just raised an eyebrow, “What the hell does that mean?”

“It means that you, Sasuke Uchiha, have taken up more than your fair share of time on this Earth and there are forces that won’t let you get away with that!”

“Oh so you’re just crazy.”

She laughed, “I don’t care if you call me crazy. Maybe I am crazy! Maybe that’s what happens when you’re the only person who can see things for the way they are; you get permanently labeled as crazy.”

“Pretty sure you’re just regular crazy.”

She was next to Sasuke in a second, somehow too quick for him to read, she managed to take his sword right from his hand and held it under his neck.

Even Naruto took a second before shouting, “Sasuke!”, it happened too fast for him to follow. Mio seemed proud of their underestimation of her, “What’s _really_ crazy is that _that_ one,” she gestured towards Naruto with an eyebrow, “wants absolutely _fuh-king anything _to do with a scumbag like _you_.”

She spat on his face, like she couldn’t stand to be this close without doing so any longer, “I live in a world where I struggle every single day for the things that I have and the people that I love. I work and work and work and the universe doesn’t care-“

“I’m responsible for your bad luck?”

Mio pressed the blade into Sasuke’s skin, enough to break through slightly, “You wanna play that game? Ok! What you’re responsible for is the death of my parents.” She said it stone-faced, and Sasuke shut up and studied her, when had he ever met this woman before?

“Oh fuck you, don’t try to recognize me, we never fucking met, you prick.” She looked like she might spit on him again but she went on instead, “I had a career at that point, you know, started young, wanted to work my way up. Meanwhile you were working with that fucking sicko _snake_ who came to my village to bring me to _you_ and took my fucking parents when he couldn’t find me!”

It was clear to Sasuke where her anger and false sense of justice were allowed to run wild, and he almost couldn’t find it in him to fault her for it. Her face was that of an avenger, and a good one evidently; she went on, “I was supposed to be a game for you at that time, a fun, extra challenging, workout; guess you had to settle for a subpar one that day you miserable sack of shit.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah idk, kinda just went on a tangent in my head thinking about how other people would react to S&N after shit went down and now I just wish Kishimoto went into some more political shit on that whole sitch. So I’m going into political shit ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ like judge me if you want but I already told you not to expect anything sexy.

Sasuke remained silent as she spoke, “ _You’re_ responsible for my hard work being thrown in the trash because I had no _choice_ but to come back to the shithole village I was born into. Because you left my family with _nobody_ , nobody to turn to in times of crisis; just Mio and Mei, we may as well have been the only people in the **universe**!” She stomped her foot in frustration, “ _I_ was going to change things in this shitty, _shit_ world! I was on my fucking way! You put me back so that the only thing I had time to do was survive and serve! And then _**what**!? What, _you got a buddy on the good list!? You get to be happy anyway!? What kind of bullshit is **that!?** ”

“You’re _no fucking **good!**_ Just accept it!“ She paused, trying to think of where she was going before she got a little carried away. She broke character a second and smiled in spite of herself, “That stupid fucking group approached me” she laughed, “they had no idea how lucky they were, just happening to find the one person with a _clear_ vision for a goal for them to chase. Almost felt poetic, the first one was after your boyfriend, _now_ , we’re sort of working for the benefit of him.”

She paused for a second to read Sasuke’s expression, clearly something in it told her he was close to breaking because she didn’t let up, “Oof, because let’s be _real_ honest, right now, right? That one is going to be the hokage someday, right? I mean let’s not even act like they’re gonna give everybody else a fair shake when the guy literally saved the universe, right?” She stepped back and threw the sword behind her with no warning, seemingly just because she couldn’t shrug casually with the thing in her hand, “I mean whatever, I’m a supporter, I get it, I wasn’t mad about it; but what I can’t stand by and watch is you getting pulled up there right alongside him!”

“Like what? Was he going to make decisions in the best interest of _us?_ Or ‘us’?” She asked with a gag, “ _Please_ , I’d rather see you _both_ die than see you both in charge of _my_ future!” She clapped her hands together in a quick chop-chop motion, “Now! With that in mind;” She reacquired the container from her pocket and held it out to him, “it doesn’t _have_ to be both of you.”

Sasuke was staring at her in a state of shock, he’d become so happy recently maybe he forgot that there was nothing but death and destruction that inevitably followed him wherever he went. He’s been The Monster for more people than he could even come to comprehend. His hand shakily lifted to grab the container from her. She lifted an eyebrow as if to say, ‘Really? First try was all it took?’, but let him take it anyway.

It didn’t matter, he was wrong when he said that death and destruction were the only things that followed him, there was one more, and it made living without it an impossibility. If Naruto wasn’t chasing him the only thing he would feel would be theemptiness in his place, he was the _only_ point.

Sasuke looked directly into her eyes and she mock-shivered just to let him know what a joke his existence was to her. Even if he killed her she’d win and she knew it, there was no part of him that could comply with that knowing what he’d lose. He wasn’t trying to intimidate her anyway, he wasn’t interested in something like that, “What assurance do I have that you won’t just kill him once I’m gone?”

“ _Sasuke!_ Don’t be an idiot! What are you saying!?” Naruto started right away.

She laughed, “Cross my heart?”

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her, he may have to accept that he lost but he wasn’t going to allow her to keep making a joke out of him. “Swear on Mei’s life.”

Mio seemed surprised he’d thought of that, obviously she felt hugely disrespected, “Listen here yo-“

“Swear on Mei’s life or I walk out.”

“Walk out _anyway_ dumbass! You think I can’t get myself out of this!? Who do you think you’re talking to?!”

Sasuke wanted to tell Naruto to shut up, but he stayed silent to try to put effort into his performance for Mio. In which he was trying to find some way to convince her with his face that he could actually be capable of walking away.

He felt like she wasn’t buying it, her gaze matched his intensity for minutes as Naruto shouted at the brick walls that Sasuke should flee. She seemed about ready to drop her devastating call on his bluff, when her face suddenly lightened and she threw her head back in a laugh, “Sure, corpse, I swear on Mei’s life.” She put her hands on her hips, “after all I was never planning on hurting him afterwards anyways, he’ll grow from this, it’s like I said, I’m a supporter!”

She laughed until she stopped, then she lowered her gaze back to Sasuke’s, “Did you get the last power trip you needed, honey? You ready to go?”

“Sasuke! Seriously!! I’ll be fine! Don’t be an emotional idiot, idiot!! Listen!”

“And I get to say goodbye.” Sasuke bargained one last time.

Mio rolled her eyes, “Have at it!”

At this permission Sasuke ran to Naruto’s side and sat, hovering over him like a magnet struggling to connect two matching forces. Naruto had been quiet for the most part but these wires were no joke, he put together how they worked when he looked him over. Clearly they would drain his chakra whenever Mio did something, Naruto being someone with an exceptional amount of chakra, this method would probably take a little time. But at the same time, it couldn’t have been activated for more than two minutes at a time before and already Naruto looked so weak.

There wasn’t enough here, there wasn’t enough information to go on, he couldn’t go against Mio knowing so little about how to stop the jutsu when she could activate it and kill Naruto with seemingly no effort. ‘It’s over’ he thought as he wiped the sweat from Naruto’s face. Naruto leaned into his hand, Sasuke couldn’t help but feel selfishly, he wanted to go on living with Naruto or not at all. He had every intention of telling Naruto that.

But when he met Naruto’s eyes, his words got caught in his throat, what could this idiot possibly be smiling at right now? The blonde even chuckled, “I take it back, I don’t want to be Mio. She’s kind of an ass.”

Sasuke stared, Naruto went on, “I always knew we had bad luck babe, but this.”

Sasuke couldn’t help but smile, “yeah I think this might be a little more than plain bad luck usuratonkachi.”

Naruto winced dismissively, “Ah, we’ve scraped by in worse situations than this. I know-“ but Sasuke felt that brain shut down once again as Naruto spoke.

“Sasuke? Are you-“ but this time Sasuke cut him off with a zealous kiss. All he could do was desperately push his face against the other’s, he wanted so many more years with him, how could he accommodate for all of that in a short goodbye?

Sasuke’s head fell down and pressed onto Naruto’s chest. Naruto felt that if there was any chance that he could feel his heartbeat on his forehead, it would be giving him a headache. He swallowed, then gently continued from before the disquieting kiss, “Sasuke, are you crying _again?_ ”

He’d never thought he could feel as powerless as he did in this moment, “Sasuke, please, don’t think about me, I’m a cockroach, nobody ever manages to kill me, ok? Nobody.” Sasuke didn’t show any sign of understanding, in fact he just turned his head to the side to press his cheek against Naruto’s chest instead, son of a bitch, don’t get comfortable.

“Sasuke,” it sounded like a breath, “I’ve done everything for you, don’t you dare be so selfish.” And at this Sasuke sniffed and Naruto felt he was finally listening, “Just what am I supposed to do with you gone, _huh?_ Did you think about that? You’re my soulmate Sasuke, _please_ , don’t willingly make me stay here without a soulmate. Don’t do that to me, I’ve done everything for you.”

They were both silent for a second, “You hear me?” Naruto asked, the silence that followed being nothing more than annoying to him, “Do you hear me Uchiha bastard!?” At this Sasuke sat up, off of Naruto, onto his knees, “I love you, you piece of shit! Stop! You cut this shit out _now!_ You don’t _get_ to do this to me! Hey!!” Naruto shouted at him as he stood onto his feet and moved away from him.

Sasuke turned to Mio, “Why’d you let that go on? You could’ve stopped us.”

Mio shrugged, “Morbid curiousity?”

Sasuke laughed darkly, “Fuck you” and with that he opened the bottle and drank.

“NO!”


	8. Chapter 8

Naruto remembered waking up by himself in a hospital bed. He remembered when Sakura came in and told him what had happened. He remembered crying, a lot, sometimes at the most nonsensical phrases anyone had ever cried to. When Sakura told him she met Mei she had to wait another five minutes before continuing. 

Sakura explained that, because they were his team and she loved them, and also because she knew they were going through something and she was curious how they were doing, she kept an eye on all the reports they were sending back. She had felt something suspicious as soon as she read the full detailing of Mei’s story.

She explained that her Sakura-senses went off when she read how Mio was sending all of her intel back to her sister. After all, if she had been in Anbu, surely she would’ve known _someone_ a little more helpful than her sister, with the sickness and the bad back. It just felt like she could’ve cut Mei out of the equation and be safer for it, she knew that all Mei could do was worry.

It made no sense to Sakura at the time, with the hindsight she had now she realized Mio must’ve somehow been working with someone high up in Konoha and was able to get the two sent to her village, where the good-natured Mei was sure to find them. Sakura made a point to reassure Naruto that Mei had not betrayed them intentionally and that whoever the rat was that conspired with Mio, they would be brought to justice sooner rather than later.

Anyway, Sakura didn’t know any of this at the time, but she only felt worse when she read the information around the meet; why would Mio tell her sister out of the blue where she was going to be when she obviously couldn’t do anything about it? It’s something the boys would’ve picked up on too if they had been using their heads a little more and not rushing into things trying to be heroic. She took off as soon as she read the report, maybe she was being overly-cautious, maybe she wasn’t; either way she had to know.

So she traveled there as fast as she possibly could, hoping to find them before they got themselves into something stupid.

It took her almost a whole day to get there, and when she did, she found that the room the boys had been staying at was vacant. She felt helpless, but then Mei showed up, angel that she was, and while Sakura explained to her what was going on Mei realized who Sasuke was.

Sakura could sense it was all coming into place in her head, what her sister had been scheming all along. She ran with Sakura towing behind her as fast as she could towards where she’d brought Naruto and Sasuke.

Sakura started to describe what happened when she got inside when Naruto cut her off, “ _Jesus_ Sakura, have some compassion! I can’t hear about how you found us, it’s too soon!!” It came out angry because he _was_ angry, how could she tell the story so detached when she realized what he went through and what they both lost?

“Too soon...?” Sakura seemed to be questioning the words to herself, genuinely unsure what Naruto meant by them, “too soon..too so-“ suddenly she cut herself off with a gasp. Naruto felt for the first time in his life like fighting Sakura, what was she playing at? Messing with Naruto from the hospital bed? How much more insensitive could you get?? Even if she had taken him to the hospital, it didn’t give her the right to torture him with the details.

He examined her in disbelief as her face turned bright red, she then clapped her hands together and bowed as far as she could, “ _Forgive me!_ ”

Her head stayed low as Naruto looked her over, he couldn’t get the energy to feel like pushing this further, “enough Sakura, it’s ok. You weren’t thinking.”

Her head snapped back up, with tears in her eyes, “That’s just the _thing!_ I _wasn’t_ thinking!!” She was clearly ashamed beyond words at her actions, “I just walked in here and started telling you exactly what I did, I forgot what the last thing you experienced was!!!”

Naruto couldn’t believe she was saying such a thing, how could she forget?? She grabbed his hand and dropped her head onto it, “I should’ve _told_ you before I started on anything else!! Oh Naruto, I can’t believe I let you sit there like that for so long you must think I’m so heartless! I’m _sorry!_ I forgot you didn’t _know!_ ”

At this point he was up on his bed scurrying away from her every movement, “Didn’t know what!?”

She wiped her eyes and sniffed, then smiled.

—-

“So Sakura is the only one among us capable of using her brain.” Sasuke groaned softly as Naruto, who was cuddled onto his chest, laughed at his words.

“But we knew that all along.” Naruto replied.

“Yeah I guess we kinda did.” He poked at Naruto’s lovable cheeks, “Remind me again, why is she not the one accompanying me on my missions?”

“Oh I know the answer to that one! It’s because-“ without warning he hopped up and kissed Sasuke’s mouth. He started leaving a trail of kisses all up and down and around Sasuke’s face, then his neck, and so on.

“Not really an answer though, usuratonkachi.”

Naruto stopped at where he was and made a fart noise into Sasuke’s skin instead, despite his best efforts Sasuke started laughing. They felt like somebody had scrubbed their bones clean, all they could feel was lightness. Naruto joined him in the laughter and collapsed onto the hospital bed beside him.

“What are you, done?” Sasuke raised an eyebrow at him, “I thought those kisses were gonna get interesting soon.”

Naruto smacked his chest, “You think just because you drank poison for me, I’m gonna give you blowjobs in hospital rooms now?”

“I mean that wasn’t one of the specific things on my mind at the time, but it does sound right to hear you say it like that.”

“Shut _up_!” Naruto pulled himself back on top of the annoying guy, smiling more than he knew he could.

There was silence for a couple of minutes before a “I’m sorry I tried to break up with you.” broke it.

Sasuke couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of the sentence now, Naruto felt bad but he saw the humor in it too.

“Yeah, you didn’t ‘ _try_ ’, we’re still broken up, this means nothing to me, I got Suigetsu on speed dial after this.”

“HA! As if I want you anyway!”

“ _You’re my soulmate Sasuke!! Don’t do this to me Sasuke!!_

_“SHUT **UP** SASUKE!!”_

__

“You always were the dramatic type usuratonkachi”

__

“I thought you were going to **die**!! You can’t use what I said when I thought you were going to **die** against me!!”

__

“Mmm, yeah see I get that but also like, there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

__

“I could kill you.”

__

“You won’t do that! No balls!”

__

Naruto lifted his entire bodyweight and let it fall on Sasuke again, causing him to lurch up in pain, “ _Who_ has no balls?”

__

Sasuke was still reacting to the impact but he shot back anyway, “If this is some kinky thing and I’m supposed to say ‘me’ for something to initiate, you literally just have to say the **word.** ”

__

Naruto rolled his eyes, “I give up!”

__

He nestled his head against Sasuke’s neck and closed his eyes peacefully. For a while they just stayed like that in silence.

__

“Why _were_ you going to break up with me?” Sasuke asked into the air.

__

Naruto shifted to the side, off of Sasuke, while still holding onto him, so that he could actually make some kind of eye contact. He remembered just how melodramatic he had been just days earlier, when he genuinely did not realize how much worse he could feel without Sasuke in his life.

__

He tried to remember why it had seemed so important that he fall on the sword back then and end the relationship despite it being the best thing going for him. “I don’t know what I was thinking Sasuke.”

__

He was being honest but Sasuke wasn’t satisfied, which was fair, so Naruto went on, “The thing that’s hard for me to convey is...” he tried hard to find the words, “we just have totally different experiences with people on a daily basis.”

__

Sasuke lowered his eyebrows, “I don’t even know what that means.”

__

Naruto nodded, “Yeah I’m bad at this,” he’d never really gotten the grip of emotions, despite how often they controlled him. “I just, I see you talking to people all the time, and they just love you, like _everybody , everybody _loves you right as soon as they meet you.” He explained.

__

“And I’m the opposite; I’ve always been hated at first sight, not in a big, menacing way, I’m just used to being The Monster for most people, you know?”

__

Naruto searched Sasuke for a response and for a second he just stared. His face broke into a smile and Naruto started to complain, “I knew you weren’t gonna take me se-“

__

Sasuke pulled him back against him, “Usuratonkachi”

__

Naruto grumbled, “yeah _whatever_ make fun, I don’t care, the point was, I just didn’t want to hold you back from making the connections that you would be making if I didn’t force you to stay with me.”

__

“Force me?”

__

“Well you know what I mean.”

__

Sasuke sighed against Naruto’s hair, before kissing it and speaking again, “You have _no_ idea how far off you are dobe.” He went on, “ _I’m_ the one who holds you back.”

__

Naruto smacked his chest, “That’s only ok when I say it. Besides, I’m the one who goes after you, I pushed this whole thing farther than I had a right to. You shouldn’t be with me out of an obligation, that makes me fucking sick.”

__

Sasuke looked confused, “ _Stop_ , why do you just sound like you’re breaking up with me again?” At this Naruto sighed, but Sasuke wasn’t gonna let him keep going with this nonstarter notion that Naruto was the only one who wanted this relationship.

__

“You’re _off_ the _mark_ , idiot.” He started bluntly, “you’re off about everything but I’ll start with this; I am not the one who makes everybody that they meet fall in love with them, that’s _you!_ ”

__

Naruto pulled back like he was going to fight that remark, but Sasuke kept going, “The fact that you don’t realize that is, quite frankly, shocking. I mean you are the person who, time and time again, saved the fucking day just by sympathizing with the enemy. The **enemies** are in love with you! It’s almost ridiculous! You’re like a goddamn Mother Theresa!”

__

Naruto went to speak and was again cut off, “I’m only _here_ , the world’s only _standing_ , because I _couldn’t_ keep from loving you. Each time you tried to get through to me, it became harder and harder to continue to purposely sabotage my own happiness. I could feel the love I’d needed my whole life when I looked at you; so believe me when I say there’s nobody in this world I’d rather be attached to. That any situation away from you would’ve always been a step away from happiness for me.”

__

Naruto stared into Sasuke’s intense eyes, he felt his face weaken and break and he slammed his head toward the bed to hide his face.

__

Sasuke ran his hand up and down the others’ back, “You took somebody as irredeemable as me and made me want to live, to live with you. I’ve felt you through everything, You’re a part of me, stupid.”

__

“Now who’s being dramatic?” Naruto tried to mock through snivels.

__

Sasuke smiled as he leaned over and kissed Naruto’s head again, “You should hear Sakura when she gets to going about _Ino_.”

__

Naruto laughed into the pillow, though he still had tears streaming on his face, “oh, I _know_.”

__

“ _My fucking soul called out to her!!!_ ” They both mocked at the same time, and then burst out laughing. Naruto flipped onto his back beside Sasuke and just held his hand as he contently closed his eyes. Everything was going to be okay...

__

“What got you thinking I was so unfulfilled anyway usuratonkachi?”

__

“I thought you might’ve been in love with Sakura.”

__

“ **YoU ThOuGhT-** “

__


End file.
